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Neil Kings Islay and Scotland Images Revisited

Sunday, 18 October 2009

A while back I wrote about Neil King who had a huge collection of old Scotland and Islay Postcards on Flickr. Back then Neil told me he was updating his collections and when I checked back today I noticed there were a huge number of updates. I was again very much impressed and spent a lot of time looking at the many beautiful images and postcards. Besides adding images to existing image sets, Neil also created new image sets and I think I can safely say that his account holds one of the most extensive and interesting Scotland photo collections I have found on the internet. I'd like to point out several of his collections with a Islay relation below.

The first set I wrote about a while back was the collection of old postcards which contained over 200 old postcards of Scotland. When I checked today Neil already uploaded over 400 postcards. A unique resource and a must to visit, specially considering the fact that this collection contains many old postcards of Islay. Continue reading....

The second set holds images of the Highlands and Islands of west Scotland. Most of these images were taken in the 1980s and 1990s and were specifically taken to record the places which were likely to change or disappear. This set also contains images of Islay, Port Askaig in particular, and hundreds other images of west Scotland. All the images are of a very high quality and I can highly recommend a visit.

The third set, and another fasctinating one, is the MacBrayne's Ships collection, which holds almost 400 images with Calmac's ships and dates back to the early 1980s. One of the images I found here (first in this post) was a beautiful view of Port Askaig taken in 1988, long before the reconstruction works were carried out that blasted half the mountain away and created a much bigger parking space. Another beautiful image from Port Askaig is the one below. The image, taken somewhere around 1965-69, shows the MV Lochnevis which sailed the West Loch Tarbert - Gigha - Jura - Islay - Colonsay mail service timetable in summer.

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The Maggie is one of Ealing studios lesser known comedies. A wily old skipper of a Western Isles 'Puffer' and his motley crew lead all who come into contact with them a fine old time! Many scenes on Islay!